Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks reached the center of the town of Rafah on Tuesday. according to multiple media outlets, indicating that Israel intended to fight outwards toward the periphery rather than closing in from the outside.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Israeli tanks advanced farther into Rafah on Tuesday, according to witnesses, as the Israeli military said it was expanding operations in the southern Gaza city amid growing international condemnation.
The tanks passed near the Al-Awda mosque, a central Rafah landmark, Palestinians in the city told The Wall Street Journal. The Israeli military didn’t comment on the specifics of its push into Rafah, but Israel’s Army Radio said the military had added a brigade to the five operating in the city and troops were engaging in close-quarters combat with Hamas.
The tactic of penetrating to the heart of an enemy city and fighting back out was pioneered by Israel in the West Bank during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, and later became a model of urban counter-terror warfare. The idea is to confuse enemy fighters by attacking them from the rear.
Israel also (controversially) uses armored bulldozers in its attacks on terrorists in urban centers, carving out corridors for troops and vehicles to avoid booby-trapped pathways.
There is another advantage in the present setting to starting the fight from the center of Rafah: it allows more civilians to escape. Already, close to one million Palestinians are estimated to have fled to nearby towns and camps.
Finally, with international pressure against the Rafah operation building, Israel may also be looking to speed up its tactics, going straight to the heart of the city rather than fighting small, drawn-out skirmishes on the outskirts.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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